I'm pretty geeked about the universal hardware idea from the first link, especially if it will allow multi-boot options and easy user ROM flashing. I'm also intrigued to find out what Alcatel will do with Palm's patents and name. Could LuneOS be coming to dedicated hardware???

I have been dealing with Alcatel products for nearly 20 years. They are still a big player in the enterprise telecommunications space, mostly in Telephone Company central offices here in the US. They tried their hand at Office Telephone products here around 2001 but basically got sent back to France with their tail between their legs. They were very Euro-centric and their way of handling applications at the time didn't seem to bode well with the US office worker. IMHO they are a very innovative company and look at different/better ways to accomplish things, hence the possibility of dual boot devices. Looking forward to seeing what they will bring

If you can flash one Android, you can most likely flash versions... Saying Cyanogen or Vanilla as a choice is saying don't give me 3 OS options, limit me to two. I'm not sure I understand the intent of your statement. Contextually it reads as if Cyanogen or Vanilla Android would be more OS choices and they are not.

I'm not sure Alcatel "skins" Android with anything. It may very well be an AOSP ROM and I would certainly like that better than a skin, especially if it gets Xposed Framework support. Without doubt, when this device hits there will be many Android ROMs ported to it over at XDA. Getting more flavors of Android on a device is rarely a problem.

FirefoxOS, on the other hand, is a unique and stand-alone OS choice. It's very web-centric and HTML5 driven. I dabbled with a bit by porting it to a Nexus 4. I personally didn't care for it much, but it wasn't on dedicated hardware and I had other interests (like Ubuntu Touch and Jolla Sailfish ports) so I didn't spend too much time with it. It is a growing OS choice and why not include it? Alcatel has already made dedicated Firefox OS devices so this is a natural extension.

Originally Posted by ajb1965

I have been dealing with Alcatel products for nearly 20 years. They are still a big player in the enterprise telecommunications space, mostly in Telephone Company central offices here in the US. They tried their hand at Office Telephone products here around 2001 but basically got sent back to France with their tail between their legs. They were very Euro-centric and their way of handling applications at the time didn't seem to bode well with the US office worker. IMHO they are a very innovative company and look at different/better ways to accomplish things, hence the possibility of dual boot devices. Looking forward to seeing what they will bring

Just because the hardware is the same does not mean even a common boatloader. Microsoft has their own for Windows phone as does Google for Android. Alcatel will simply sell the same hardware as different models.

Shows how hardware development can now be shared. And given that Microsoft gives OEMs a budget to market Windows Phone and cheaper licensing than Android, hopefully will help push more models.

So multi-boot is out if it includes WP? I know first hand you can multiboot Android/Ubuntu Touch/Firefox OS. I had a Nexus 4 set up that way. You were limited to Android 4.2, but it worked without a hitch when switching between OS choices at boot up.

Or Alcatel could set up ROM downloads on their website and you could flash your choice at home...

If you can flash one Android, you can most likely flash versions... Saying Cyanogen or Vanilla as a choice is saying don't give me 3 OS options, limit me to two. I'm not sure I understand the intent of your statement. Contextually it reads as if Cyanogen or Vanilla Android would be more OS choices and they are not.

My bad. My ignorance drove me to think that Firefox OS is just a forked version of Android, much like Amazon, which it is not xP.

And I never did know about Alcatel releasing phones running Firefox OS lol, never even heard of Alcatel until recently.